Educational officials have expressed outrage after an Albanian asylum seeker studying at a Scottish university was seized by immigration officials, making it impossible for her to finish her degree.
Merita Hazizi, a fourth-year student at Strathclyde University, was due to sit several exams in August and September in order to complete a BSc in Physics and Maths but was detained along with her parents on Saturday. They are now due to be flown to Albania from Stansted Airport on Thursday.
Peter West, secretary of the university, said it would be a "travesty" if the 22-year-old were unable to complete her studies. He said: "We are extremely concerned to hear about Merita's situation. She has worked very hard throughout her course and it would be a travesty to see her unable to graduate after coming this far.
"We stand ready to support her academic studies in any way we can, including financially, through to graduation."
Ms Hazizi was detained pending removal from the UK last year after her family's asylum bid was rejected. She was released after the university intervened, promising to pay her tuition fees and accommodation costs so that she could complete her studies.
She was the only student in 2003 to win a university bursary designed to support asylum seekers. The scheme has since been expanded and Universities Scotland is now pushing for more asylum seekers to be allowed to study at Scottish universities.
Her detention was condemned by Sandra White, the Glasgow MSP, who called on the Scottish Executive to allow asylum-seeker students to be allowed to stay in Scotland under the Fresh Talent initiative designed to attract skilled migrants. She said: "Scotland is crying out for science graduates but instead we are sending the family back to Albania."
Ms Hazizi and her parents, Diane and Naim, were detained on Saturday after reporting to the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) offices in Brand Street, Glasgow. They were last night being held in Dungavel asylum removal centre in Lanarkshire. Her two younger brothers, Gani, 20, and David, 15, were not present and are believed on the run.
A spokesman for the BIA declined to comment on individual cases but said it was committed to removing people who had no right to remain in the UK and that removals were always carried out in the most sensitive way possible.
A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: "The Fresh Talent Initiative is a broad initiative to attract people of talent to Scotland. However, we must remember that there are people already here who are capable of contributing, and the current inability of asylum seekers to obtain paid employment is one of the concerns about asylum policy that ministers have."
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